insolvency
OBBBA Consequences Cited in New Trust Fund Insolvency Warning
The 2026 tax filing season kicked off officially earlier this week, and many taxpayers are eagerly awaiting an assessment of the impact on their personal financial situations. Larger refunds, or at least lower tax liabilities, are likely in store for…
Definition Time: The Old-Age Dependency Ratio and its Relationship to Insolvency
Perhaps the most significant story relating to the U.S. Social Security system these days is the onerous projection of its looming insolvency. Who hasn’t seen the headlines proclaiming Social Security’s impending “bankruptcy” or the incessant warnings of a major benefit…
A To-Do List for Congress
Well, it’s last on the list, but Social Security (and Medicare) reform made it onto Congress’s 2026 priorities list… at least on the list of pressing congressional matters compiled by PBS NewsHour correspondent Lisa Desjardins and posted on their website…
A Common Sense Approach to Social Security Reform?
In a well-written, somewhat light-hearted, but nonetheless timely and realistic discussion, Stanford Magazine writer Summer Moore Batte summarizes the thinking of two scholars on how to address Social Security’s rapidly approaching financial cliff. In her news.stanford.edu post, Ms. Batte captures…
CEPR Examines Federal Budget, Comments on Social Security Insolvency Actions
The fiscal future of America is in question, repeatedly, these days. With the National Debt Clock showing the real-time accumulation of public debt at over $38 trillion, there’s quite a bit of consternation in the media over the economic implications…
Examining Three Key Social Security Reform Ideas
As the clock continues to wind down toward the full depletion of Social Security’s financial reserves, interest is growing in discussions about the inevitability of structural changes to avert insolvency. Recent controversy surrounding the 2026 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is evidence…
Ben Shapiro, Social Security, and “bankruptcy”
Bankrupt is a harsh term. At its worst, the implication is that financial resources are gone. What it really means, though, is an inability to meet financial obligations. In the context of Social Security, the term is unfortunately accurate, in…
The Social Security Trust Funds Explained
Social Security’s financial picture, dismal as it might be, is typically misunderstood. Those unable to grasp its relationship to overall federal governmental finances characterize it as a “Ponzi scheme.” Others persistently claim that money has been “stolen” or “misappropriated” from…
How Lack of Understanding Drives Perceptions of Social Security
CATO Institute’s recent Social Security survey produced results that indicate a fairly broad misunderstanding of the program’s fundamentals. For example, more than half of the 2,200 survey participants were not aware of the “pay as you go” formula used by…
The downside of “fixes” for Social Security insolvency
It’s not going to be easy, and everybody knows this. After all, the can has been kicked for the past four decades, and the Board of Trustees noted that the kicking can only go another seven years before the cuts…